Pro Lure Round 10 Hobie Kayak Bream Series 10

On November 3rd and 4th, a strong field 58 anglers from New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (Qld), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Victoria (VIC) travelled to Lake Macquarie in the Hunter region of NSW to compete in Pro Lure round 10 of Hobie Kayak Bream Series 10.

After an encouraging pre-fish day on Friday the tournament kicked off on Saturday morning in 12 to 18kt NW winds, with the temperature reaching 39 degrees Celsius towards the middle of the day. Fortunately for the anglers, a cooling southerly breeze blew in at around 1:20pm. But while conditions for most of the day were extreme, the bite was strong across a widespread section of the lake, with anglers producing 93 bream at the scales, which weighed a total of 49.78kg.

On Sunday a 180-degree wind shift saw a cooler 6-12kt breeze blow in from the SE throughout the session. 92 fish for 54.09kg were caught on the day, reaching a tournament total of 185 fish which weighed in at 103.87kg. The average fish weight over the two days was 560g.

Gammie Goes Gangbusters

Australia representative and 6th place getter at the Hobie Fishing World Championship in Sweden earlier this year, Jack Gammie from Berowra Waters in NSW, fished the Swansea Bridge for around 30 minutes on day one. He picked up three average sized bream before the tide started running too hard to maintain his position in the channel. He headed back to the Swansea flats where most other anglers were fishing and upgraded there once to bring a 1.93kg bag back to the scales.

On day two Gammie chose to do the long haul of 9.3km once again and pedalled his new Hobie Outback for 1 hour 40 minutes, just to get to his preferred location, the Swansea Bridge. The current there was running so hard in the channel that the last kilometre took Gammie almost 45 minutes before he could get near the bridge pylons and throw his first cast.

After finally reaching his destination, and with the tide still running really hard, he fished for just over two hours, throwing Cranka Crabs with running ball sinkers just to get the crabs to the bottom in the extreme current. Gammie added 3.05kg to his day one bag, giving him a 560g lead (1 average sized bream in the tournament) over second-place getter Kris Hickson.

“In total I caught about ten fish, and eight out of the ten were 800g or bigger, making it all worth the effort” said Gammie.

In his day two bag he had a big slapper of a fish, a 1.18kg Atomic Big Bream that added an extra $100 to his winning purse of $1690.

Rod: 7’ Daiwa Black Label 2-4kg and 1-3kg

Reel: Daiwa Caldia and a Certate

Line: 10lb Sunline PE

Leader: 6lb

Lure: Cranka Crab with a running ball sinker

Kris Hickson Hooks a Second

The current series 10 leader of Angler of the Year (AOY), Kris Hickson from Camden Haven on the NSW Mid North Coast, headed the tournament after day one, with a slender 330g lead over the eventual winner, Jack Gammie, who was sitting in fourth place.

Usually an angler who covers a lot of water in these events, Hickson kept his travelling time down on the weekend spending more time with a line in the water. While most anglers hung around Swansea Flats on the east side of the lake and to the north of the event site, Hickson travelled a much shorter distance to the west south west across to Taylors Bay, opposite the Rafferty’s Resort launch area.

Hickson was using a shallow spool reel, finesse fishing, throwing chubbies on 3 to 4lb straight through at just about everything interesting that he came across. He pulled full 3 fish bag on day one and sat in the lead on 2.26kg.

Hickson likes to fish alone but everywhere he went on day two he found other anglers which slightly threw him off his game plan. Nevertheless, he followed a similar pattern and managed to get a few small legal bream into his livewell early in the day. After pulling hooks on a few big fish at the back of the same bay that he had worked on both days, he decided to do a lap or two of Pulbah Island before heading back to the weigh-in.

His two-day aggregate bag of 4.42kg finished just short of the eventual winner, but was enough to give him second place and $880 in prize money for the tournament.

Rod: 7’4” Ultralight Daiwa TD Hyper rod

Reel: Daiwa Gekkabijin

Line: 3-4lb straight through

Lure: Pro Lure S36 Black

Paul Dunlop from NSW took home $570 for his third-place finish with a 1.69kg and a 2.24kg bag to finish with 6 fish for 3.93kg and his best finish for the season.

The remainder of the top ten collected a sponsor prize pack along with a cash prize; 4th place and $260 went to Tyson Hayes (Qld) with 3.87kg; 5th and $220 was won by Glenn Allen (NSW); 6th and $200 was pocketed by Simon Morley (NSW) with 3.64kg; 7th and $180 went to Andrew Death (NSW); 8th with 3.36kg caught by Brett Crowe (NSW) snagged him $150; Guy Struthers (QLD) picked up $130 for his 3.30kg and Jon Clisby (Vic) completed the top ten with 6 fish for 3.19kg and topped up his prize pack with $110 in cash.

The Mortgage Corp Moster Mover powerpack prize, for the biggest move up the leader board from day one to day two, went to Paul Hardiman from the ACT. Hardiman followed up his zero fish on Saturday, to bag out, with three fish, on day two, which weighed in at 1.87kg. The bag moved Hardiman up from the bottom of the field and into 25th place at the close of the tournament.

The final round of the year will be held from November 24 to 25 at Mallacoota in Victoria. The Mortgage Corp round is set to go off with a bang! While Kris Hickson looks set to secure the 2018 AOY title and a place in the Hobie Fishing World Championship in 2019, any number of other anglers have a huge chance to make the top ten and possibly a place on the Australia team for the 8th Hobie Fishing World Championship.